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Monthly Archives: August 2011
Vulcan Trucks – Two Different Versions
Yoder P48 Vulcan truck on left, San Juan P48 Vulcan truck with Protocraft 33″ wheelset on right.
While at the Strasburg show I picked up a pair of the new Yoder Vulcan p48 trucks. The Yoder website shows the trucks are out of stock in P48, but he had some on the table at the show. The trucks come fully assembled and include a screw so that they could be mounted onto one of Rich’s models.
I had held back before on buying these because I have several pair of San Juan’s Vulcan truck on the shelf and really did not know much about the design. When I got home and set the truck next to a San Juan truck, I was pleased to see that they were different. This started a little digging to find out some more information about the trucks.
I looked at the article “Arch Bars to Roller Bearing, Freight car trucks 1900-1960″ by Richard Hendrickson in Volume 4 of the Railway Prototype Cyclopedia. Where I found out the Vulcan truck was manufactured by American Steel Foundries in the early 1920′s. They were similiar to Andrews trucks of the time, with a cast steel side frame with seperate journal boxes. Where they differed is that the Vulcan design eliminated the need for a bottom retainer bars by bolting the journal box into pedestal jaws.
The article show photos of two different Vulcan designs one an earlier L-section and one a later U-section side frame castings.
In Robert Karig’s book, Coal Cars the first three hundred years, he speaks of the Vulcan design in chapter six on Freight car trucks. “George G. Floyd was awarded a patent for a side frame with pedestal mounted journal boxes on May 3, 1910. It served as the foundation patent for the American Steel Foundries’ Vulcan side frame. Initially built in a T-Section form, the Vulcan frame was ultimately converted to a channel-section design.”
I was also surprised to see that Rich’s trucks were completly within NMRA spec for P48. Not all of the trucks I have measured before from Rich for Standard O scale were, so this was great news. The San Juan truck does have nice casting letting on the truck sideframes that the Yoder’s are lacking.
Vulcan Truck from 1922 Car Builders Cyclopedia
Vulcan truck with NYC markings on display at the Danbury Railroad Museum, Danbury, CT.
2011 Strasburg O Scale Show – August
Rich Yoder and John Dunn put on another O Scale Show in Strasburg on August 6, 2011. The show was very well attended and there were a number of new things to see at the show. One of the bigger items that was on a couple of tables was Weaver’s new Lackawanna Pocono 4-8-4, one of them is in the lead photo on theis post.
Rich Yoder also had his new Mathieson Dry Ice car. I didn’t photograph the car because I was to busy going through his stock of trucks. One his table he had O scale and P48 versions of two new trucks, the PRR 2F-F2 and the PRR 2D-F12. I’ve added the measurements for the new trucks into the P48 Wheel Standards page.
I was also able to pick up an older Precision Scale Co. C&O 50 ton twin class H5 with flat ends. We had been talking about this car on the Proto48 modelers board. Turns out this car is correct for one order of theErieoffset twins and is different than the Yoder cars that are correct for theErie. I’ll post more on that later this week.
I had the chance to meet and talk for a while to Jack Hill at the show. It was very nice to put a face with the models that I’ve seen in his blog.
After a nice morning of buying and selling, I had the pleasure of going to lunch at Jenny’s Diner on US 30 with other p48′ers, such as Martin Latowsky. That is starting to turn into a regular P48 Lunch outing.
Reading Modeling Myth #1-Will the “Real” RDG Pullman Green Please Stand Up – Part III
The plot thickens……
My brother Bobb sent this partial scan to tease me a little today. It’s from a lettering diagram for Reading and CNJ switchers. The drawing was first released on 12/7/38 and is updated through 1944.
It does identify “Duco Pullman Green -(Reading Railroad Standard)- No. 254-1374″
Now to research the modern version of that paint. Still might not be what’s on the AS-16′s, but it’s another step closer.
NYC Modeler Magazine is Launched
I received an email today that NYC Modeler online magazine was launched today. I’m looking forward to more information about one of the Reading’s major interchange partners and their equipment.
This type of online publications talks mostly about HO and N scale models, but the prototype information that goes along with the model information, is the same for all scales.
The first issue looks good, I wish them lots of success.
“Developed and edited by members and friends of the New York Central System Historical Society, we are providing this free resource for anyone interested in creating acurrate models of New York Central railroad equipment and structures. The magazine is only available as a PDF file.”
The Website is at http://nycshs.org/nycentral_modeler.php